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When we have known suffering in all shades of its most frightful forms, in the most varied kinds of anguish, and have stretched out our arms to God in mute, heart-rending supplication, uttering subdued cries for help; when we have drunk the chalice to the last drop and have offered to God, for days and years, our own cross mingled with his, which gives it divine value, then God has pity on us and welcomes us into union with him. This is the moment in which, having experienced the unique value of suffering, having believed in the economy of the cross and seen its beneficial effects, God shows us in a new and higher way something that is worth even more than suffering. It is love for others in the form of mercy, the love that stretches our hearts and arms to embrace the wretched, the poor, those whom life has ravaged, repentant sinners.A love that knows how to welcome back our neighbour who went astray, our friend, brother or a

January 10, 1978 Città Nuova {rokbox title=|Open Dialogue - question to Chiara:: Città Nuova, 10/01/1978| size=|fullscreen| thumb=|images/scritti/19780110_CN-p.jpg|}downloads/chi_19780110_en.pdf{/rokbox} “Open Dialogue” (question to Chiara) What are the effects that come from living that sentence of the Gospel that says:  «Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them»?P. L. - Florence In living out this phrase of the Gospel, we can have the presence of Jesus in our midst: not the presence of a particular virtue, but of a person. We do not see Him with our eyes, but he is present and knows our every thought, every beat of our heart, every response of our soul. He is present. He is in everyone, envelopes everyone, and he helps, enlightens, and encourages each one and all of us together. And for Him to be present – and this is wonderful – just a few people are enough: two or three. And - amazingly - there where he is present, the Church is present. Tertullian said:

April 10, 1970 Città Nuova {rokbox title=|Heaven Protests:: by Chiara Lubich - Città Nuova, 10 April 1970| size=|fullscreen| thumb=|images/scritti/19700410_CN-p.jpg|}downloads/chi_19700410_en.pdf{/rokbox} Heaven Protestsby Chiara Lubich Our days abound with problems: this is what we can read on the faces of many we meet on the street. «My son refuses to study and will fail the year....» «My husband comes home late....» «My mother is ill....» «Will I make it to buy this dress? To put enough money together to take a vacation?». This holds true for us and those close to us.And if our vision ventures out to other lands and nations, we will see even greater and more acute problems: hunger, sickness… the very basic needs of life are unmet. And if one has a bit of a generous heart, one would want to do something also for them.  Then we may run across words out of the norm – we feel – that do not have an earthly origin, that do not come from the crowd around us, and that we

Città Nuova, July 25, 1999 Commetary on the Word of Life: Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord(Luke 1:45). These words belong to an event which is simple and sublime at the same time. It is the encounter between two expectant mothers whose spiritual and physical symbiosis with their sons is total. They lend them their lips, their sentiments. When Mary speaks, Elizabeth's son leaps with joy in her womb. When Elizabeth speaks, it seems that her words are put on her lips by her son, the Precursor. But while the first words of her hymn of praise to Mary are addressed personally to “the mother of the Lord” (1:43), the final ones are in the third person: "Blessed is she who believed." Thus her "affirmation acquires the character of universal truth: beatitude applies to all believers; it concerns those who accept the Word of God and put it into practice, and who find in Mary their model.”

February 25, 1978 Città Nuova {rokbox title=|Open Dialogue (question to Chiara) - Città Nuova, 25/02/1978| size=|fullscreen| thumb=|images/scritti/19780225_CN-p.jpg|}downloads/chi_19780225_en.pdf{/rokbox} Open Dialogue (question to Chiara) We are living through years in which human thought is rapidly changing, even the very concept of God. What is the true countenance of God that we should believe in? R.B. - Rome The true countenance of God to believe in is that of all times, but each era knows how to better explain it, to better penetrate it. To go straight to the truth, inarguable because infallible, it is best to see how Paul VI shows the countenance of God in his Profession of Faith, in his Creed: «We believe in one God... We believe that this God is absolutely one…. He is  ‘He who is’ as He himself revealed to Moses; and He is ‘Love’ as the apostle John teaches us; thus, these two names: Being and Love, ineffably express the same divine reality.»Here then is the true countenance of God in which to believe in: God-love,

Rocca di Papa, November 23, 1977 Jean-Claude: I would really like to hear about the story of the bottle of milk, which you have told many times. What exactly happened? Chiara Lubich: Something very simple. We were at home, I was with my two younger sisters and my mother. Everyday we had to go and fetch some milk, going along a big road, which means a tarred road that was a bit on the outskirts of the city. I don’t know, it must have been about a kilometre and a half, maybe two, I can’t really tell, and it was at a farm. My mother always tried not to make me do any chores around the house so that I could study like my brother Gino. Therefore she tried to get my sisters to do these things. But one day, it was a very, very cold winter’s day and one of my sisters, for a certain reason, I don’t remember why, didn’t feel like going; my other sister also didn’t want